I was hoping for a fix of some bugs in PD 18 plus some new features.
Instead, I got an unusable product, full of errors and glitches. Functions which now require more clicks and where I need a workaround and find myself battling the system instead of working with it.
My biggest gripe is with the working window, the library, which is always reduced by a submenu sticking out with stuff I don't need, like music and colour boards, something that was quite comfortable in previous versions in separate menus.
Why was it necessary to have this in your face all the time or requiring an extra click to close it back to where it was in previous versions?
Then there's a "feature" that importing media no longer works by updating the working directory, but opens a sub-folder in the media window that has now been created in the library or working space and needs to be imported from there.
Again, additional clicks to get something done.
The worst however is the inability to move clips around in the preview window, as for some reason, only the top layer is selected. Anything underneath is stuck there and requires - yep - a work around.
And if you try and find something new and experiment with settings, it crashes. Often. Then you need to go to the task manager, manually close the PD* processes and then you can restart the program and try again.
It's simply no fun. PG 8 and I think it was 13, those were stable platforms where I could work for hours without incidents. Now I need to save and restart frequently as the program apparently can't manage memory properly and will bog down eventually.
Have the various functions and tools been re-arranged in a better way, a more logical or structured manner? Not in my eyes.
The project ratio is now under the preview window instead of the project settings and the clip vs movie view has disappeared completely and needs to be selected via the menu.
Is there ANYTHING in PD 20 that is better than the previous version? Yes, there are more transitions, effects and the annoying saved project prompt is gone. There's probably more, but I have yet to detect it and hope someone can share their experience with this version. Maybe there is more improvement that I can see and the flaws can be ironed out in a patch.
This also shows me the danger of a subscription based approach, as I can go back and use the previous version. In a subscription I can't and if the programmers decide to do somthing that kills the program for you, you are stuck with what you are offered.